Most of the analyses of small firms' decision to seek outside equity financing and the conditions thereof have concerned private firms. Knowledge of the risk and return of entrepreneurial ventures for outside investors is consequently limited. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining...

In Canada, a venture stock market lists microcap firms at a pre-revenue stage, and competes with both formal and informal venture capital (VC). This market provides a higher rate of return and seven times as many new listings to the main exchange as traditional VC. After they graduate to the...

To ease the financing of growing SMEs, governments found or indirectly fund venture capital companies. These companies act in a context of extreme information asymmetry and potentially exorbitant agency costs. The rigorous governance of these companies is thus pivotal to their performance. We...

Private placements in public equity (PIPEs) are proliferating; in the United States, their growth is estimated at 30% per year. PIPEs are issued as part of prospectus exemptions. Because they can alleviate the financing difficulties of growing high tech companies, they should interest the...

We examine whether risk, timing or mispricing hypotheses can explain the underperformance of private and public equity issuers, in Canada, where both categories share several common characteristics. Adding an investment risk factor to the TFPM reduces, but does not eliminate, the...

We analyse the American Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) program designed to help small and medium sized businesses find venture capital. SBICs are private entities that may be financed by the Small Business Administration under favourable conditions. The success of this program should...

We analyze the economic consequences of disclosure and regulation within a context of significant information asymmetry and lenient regulation. In Canada, firms can enter the stock market at a pre-revenue stage by fulfilling each of the requirements of an initial public offerings or using...